Lafcadio Hearn began as an Enquirer reporter writing without a byline in the 1870s and became an internationally acclaimed writer about Japan’s folk tales. Today, he is largely unknown outside of academic circles, but that may change.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of Hearn’s arrival in the United States next year, the Lafcadio Hearn Society/USA and the Japan Research Center of Greater Cincinnati are offering a research award to fill in a key missing piece.

“We thought it would be a good idea to tie in a contest to the Hearn celebration we are planning,” said Steve Kemme, president of the Hearn Society. “It would be nice to nail down exactly when Hearn arrived in Cincinnati.”

It is known that Hearn arrived in New York on Sept. 2, 1869, but there is no record of when he made it to the Queen City, where he began his career.

“He came to Cincinnati on an immigrant train, but no one knows if it was late 1869 or early 1870,” said Kemme, a former Enquirer reporter who has a biography of Hearn in the works.

Hearn was born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn on June 27, 1850, on Lefkada, one of the Ionian Islands near Greece. He was born of a love affair between a British military soldier and a beautiful Greek woman. He grew up in Dublin, but his mother had difficulty fitting in there and returned to Greece. His father was always away, so Hearn was raised by his great-aunt.

At 19, he was sent to America to get rid of him, Kemme said. The executor of his great-aunt’s estate had a sister living in Cincinnati who could help him, but it didn’t pan out.

After a couple of years slumming in Cincinnati, Hearn asked about writing for The Cincinnati Enquirer. His first story appeared in The Enquirer on Nov. 4, 1872.

Lafcadio Hearn began his career writing "whimsically grotesque" stories in The Enquirer in the ...more

Lafcadio Hearn began his career writing "whimsically grotesque" stories in The Enquirer in the 1870s.

Enquirer file

His writing was vastly different from what others were producing. Instead of business and politics, Hearn wrote about the dock workers, gravediggers and poor people. He was fascinated by African-American culture, and wrote about taboo subjects.

“He always sought out ordinary people, their lives and their traditions,” Kemme said.

Hearn described himself as a reporter “whose tastes were whimsically grotesque and arabesque,” who “reveled in thrusting a reeking mixture of bones, blood and hair under people’s noses at breakfast time.”

Hearn ruffled feathers, and wasn’t always welcome. In 1875, he was fired by The Enquirer due to his marriage to a black woman, which was illegal at the time. He headed to New Orleans in 1877 and wrote about the Creole culture. From 1890 until his death in 1904, he lived in Japan, where he gained his greatest acclaim retelling Japanese folklore.

Lafcadio Hearn gained great fame for his later writings about Japan folklore, such as "Kwaidan."

Lafcadio Hearn gained great fame for his later writings about Japan folklore, such as "Kwaidan."

Provided

“I was captivated by his writing,” said Kemme, who last year hosted a visit by Hearn’s great-grandson, Bon Koizumi, director of the Lafcadio Hearn Museum in Hearn’s adopted city, Matsue, Japan. “His fleshing out of the ancient Japanese folktales in his own style was remarkable, the way he was able to capture the spirit of Japan in those tales. Even in his Cincinnati writing, you could see his talent there in embryonic form.”

Any history detectives who can provide authentic evidence of the date Hearn arrived in Cincinnati can submit documentation to Kemme at skemme@yahoo.com by Sept. 26. The winner will receive a $100 award and a set of Lafcadio Hearn Journals published by the Hearn Society — plus the satisfaction of solving a nearly 150-year-old historical mystery.